Federal Court Ruling on Blocked Aircraft Information

Monday, March 1, 2010 07:00AMLast updated 5 years ago.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the National Business Aviation Association against the FAA and ProPublica, a United States district court recently ruled that the FAA is bound by the rules of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and must disclose the list of tail numbers of aircraft that are on the FAA Block List. Many of our users have inquired as to what this means for FlightAware flight tracking information. FlightAware would like to pass along the following key points:

• The scope of the ruling applied is to disclose the list of registration numbers of aircraft on the blocked list, not to disclose current or historical flight tracking positions. FlightAware cannot disclose tracking information of aircraft on the Block List (with the exception of FlightAware’s Selective Unblocking customers).
• To access the list of blocked aircraft, a person must file a Freedom of Information Act request with the FAA. FlightAware cannot pass along this information.

Further clarifications of this matter, if needed, should be directed to the FAA.